Globe Gallery: Did Fried Chicken-Eating Pitchers Get Fatter During The Season?

With this kind of intrepid reporting, let’s sust give them the Pulitzer already. The Boston Globe, in its continuing quest to further legitimize their hard-hitting, anonymous sources-heavy report on the alleged dysfunction that permeated the clubhouse of the Boston Red Sox over the past season, have published a high-minded journalistic masterpiece on their website which provides side-by-side photos from early in the season and later of pitchers Jon Lester, Josh Beckett and John Lackey in order to determine if the three packed on the pounds over the long 162-game season where they allegedly spent a large chunk of time on their off days during games swilling beer, chowing on fried chicken and playing video games in the clubhouse. Also, for some reason, the Globe included before-and-after photos of Clay Buckholz, Tim Wakefield and Jason Varitek, presumably just to create some kind of non-fatty juxtaposition.

As you can see above, Jon Lester certainly appears like he was eating well over the summer, going from a relatively-average-sized face to a puffy-cheeked chubby, who, as an aside, kind of resembles Blaster from Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.

Photos of Beckett and Lackey follow.

I don’t know, man, given the photos, I’d have to say the effect of Beckett’s supposed fried chicken-and-malted-barley-and-hops-heavy diet is inconclusive, but Lackey? With him, there could be some signs that he’s put on some weight. Either way, given how he looked early on in the season, maybe it would be a good idea for Lackey to mix in a salad every once in a while in any event.